Welcome to Cruise Critic! If you'd like to participate on our forums by joining in the conversation, please Register Now! Be sure to visit our FAMOUS Roll Call forums, where you can meet other cruisers sailing with you and share a tour or shore excursion and SAVE MONEY!

Of the lines we have sailed we prefer the food on Celebrity above the others. Now for my opinion to help you at all, I need to include why.

Celebrity spends more per passenger on food than other mainstream cruise lines. This is clear when looking at the cuts of meat they offer, the quality/variety of produce etc. Menus are more inventive and have greater variety. This is true if comparing the main dining rooms to those on the other mainstream lines or comparing specialty dining.

I think chef Michael Roux also introduced the concept to Celebrity that all food must be made from scratch. So no sauce packets, frozen food, etc. He's no longer advising Celebrity, but I've seen somewhere on these boards that they kept that concept.

I've also seen a consistent theme that every line has had a noticeable downgrading of their quality because of cost-cutting measures. You could have experienced this with Royal Caribbean since it was 7 years between cruises. We last cruised in 2002, so I will lower my expectations based on that. And we have kids now, so we won't be choosing Celebrity again until they are older.

Food has become an up and down thing - no mainstream line is always good or always bad. I found while some of the expensive items are no longer served - the food with the same menu is very hit and miss. I do think having the food come in a timely manner cold food cold and hot food hot makes a big difference. The dining room staff seem to have much more to do - getting drinks, refilling water - no more bar staff.

We were on the Celebrity Solstice earlier this year and food in Blu (the Aqua class restaurant) was wonderful. But that is our taste - some thai, indian and other types of cuisine. The main dining room has more traditional offerings.

We always go to the specialty restaurants at least 2 nights on a 7 night cruise - because we sail quite a bit with Royal Caribbean and the menus do not change very much.

I have read that dinner in the Windjammer is often better than in the Main Dining Room.

Of the lines we have sailed we prefer the food on Celebrity above the others. Now for my opinion to help you at all, I need to include why.

Celebrity spends more per passenger on food than other mainstream cruise lines. This is clear when looking at the cuts of meat they offer, the quality/variety of produce etc. Menus are more inventive and have greater variety. This is true if comparing the main dining rooms to those on the other mainstream lines or comparing specialty dining.

Celebrity USED to spend more per passenger on food than any other mainstream cruise line.
They held that #1 position for years.
Since 2008 they have cut that spending more and more until they are now in third place.

Holland America and Princess now vie for the First Place position, depending on ship and itinerary.

Celebrity USED to spend more per passenger on food than any other mainstream cruise line.
They held that #1 position for years.
Since 2008 they have cut that spending more and more until they are now in third place.
Holland America and Princess now vie for the First Place position, depending on ship and itinerary.

I understand that this data is not commonly shared or known. Can you say how MSC compares to the mainstream competition per passenger food expense?

I have cruised Carnival and Princess. With Carnival it has been hit or miss with the food and the ships. On both of my Princess cruises the food has been good. I also enjoyed the inside passage cruise. On Princess they have an International Cafe with various salads, sandwiches, desserts, and breakfast pasteries that are very good. The MDR has good food as well and never thought anything was just 'meh".

Thanks all. I found http://www.beyondships.com/ and found that all RCL main menues appear that they have the same offerings on all ships. We won a trip on MOS and will be going on a Western Caribean cruise in Feb or March. Also looking at an inside passage cruise for 20012. Considering a different cruise line. You opions have been very helpful.
When we were in port at Nasau, Carnival Liberty (I believe) was docked next to us. I struck up a conversation with a fellow cruiser and he said the food was better on Carnival. Thought I run it by you all.
I think that my inside passage cruise may just be booked with another line to experience how they do it.

We also thought that the food on Royal Caribbean has declined & were apprehensive cruising on Carnival last year, but were pleasantly surprised so much that we have decided to cruise on Carnival Miracle next year instead of the Explorer of the Seas.

Just our opinion.. #1 is Celebrity for best service & food(slightly more upscale choices & excellent quality) #2 is HAL for the same reasons as #1. Tied for #3 is CCL & RCCL., almost always good to very good. #4 is NCL and #5 is Princess (only 1 sailing with them, probably just a fluke bad experience, but it was 'eh' MDR food & BAD service)

Food is a very personal thing, influenced by one's background and experience. Standardized recipes that the lines use will taste and look different from ship to ship as the Chefs put their view and translation in.
Overall, each line gravitates to some kind of cuisine, generally French, Italian, or American. Food budgets are tight. RCCL, at one time allowed $1 per day, per passenger for baked goods (that's based on 4 meals!!!)
Imho, Holland has been the best, Celebrity second, and the rest- third, based on Mainstream lines.
Crystal was the line I really enjoyed the food as I saw the artistic efforts and attention to quality.
Dennis, Executive Chef

I've just returned from 12 days in the Baltic on the Jewel. I need a gluten free diet and my experience was very poor (I've also posted on the gluten free tips thread in more detail). However, the concensus among our fellow diners is that the food varied from good/satisfactory most of the time in the MDR, to occasionally inedible (literally, a calzone pizza on the last night had to be sent back without a bite taken out of it, it was so disgusting, and another dish chosen instead. Also on the last night several people left the veg as it was stone cold. The Windjammer is a disorganised scrum, catering to the masses with huge quantities of cheap food - burgers, fries, beans, processed cheese etc. only small offerings of healthy stuff such as salad or fruit which take some finding as they are not rationally organised (a superfluity of melon though - presumably it comes cheap).

All that aside, the salad bar at lunch in the MDR is superb - this doubles as a muesli bar at breakfast and is also superb. Alas, the former is only available on days at sea and the latter is not available on the last morning when the whole breakfast offering is very limited, not even a banana to be had on the whole of the ship apparently - shame that breakfast experience is the final memory you take with you.

Obviously for me the food and dining experience is going to colour my judgment of the whole cruise experience because of my gluten free diet but to compound that there was lots wrong with the RCI dining experience from bungling waiters in the MDR to ones in both the MDR and W/J who were indifferent and unhelpful; There are certainly not enough tables for 2; Food is generally low quality.

I've been on Royal, Princess, and Celebrity. None were bad, however, Celebrity is the only one that left lasting impressions, and a desire to get back on board for a good number of the selections. Argentinean flank steak and lamb chops come to mind, as well as the incredible cheese filled mini croissants.

Celebrity USED to spend more per passenger on food than any other mainstream cruise line.
They held that #1 position for years.
Since 2008 they have cut that spending more and more until they are now in third place.
Holland America and Princess now vie for the First Place position, depending on ship and itinerary.

Ugh, really? That does not bode well for Celebrity, since I was thoroughly unimpressed with Princess' food recently. I remember thinking Celebrity's food was really pretty good for a mainstream cruise line, but it has been a while, so maybe they have gone downhill since? Their menus still appeal to me the most though, so perhaps it's more in the prep/selection than the cost?

Do they still have sushi (as in actual raw salmon) and pasta made to order in the buffet area? (Holland and Celeb both had the pasta, which I enjoyed)

As for my opinion, of the five major lines we've sailed (bear in mind the chronology though, some were quite a while ago), the order was Celebrity, Holland, Carnival, Princess/RCCL tie.

Interesting thread. To date, we have only cruised Princess and NCL. Of the two, Princess does a better job in their main dining rooms. NCL used to have pretty good MDR food, but they seem to be getting worse. However, NCL does the alternate dining roomsuch better than Princess and the food is wonderful. Of course this comes at extra cost, but NCL cruise fares are often much lower than Princess so if you look at it that way, you have some money to put toward your dining on NCL.